


Illusions

by ohclare



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Post - Deathly Hallows, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohclare/pseuds/ohclare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>when Gabrielle Delacour was nineteen she fell in love with the man of her dreams</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illusions

Gabrielle could taste the salt on her skin as she stood at the top of the cliff looking out over the sea. Her long blonde hair had been ripped out of its usual immaculate bun and was repeatedly hitting her tear ridden face but she didn’t notice that. The only sign that she really noticed what was going on around her was the way in which she tightly held her long black cloak around her slender frame.  
  
She was in another world.  
  
It was only when the first drops of rain started to fall she realized exactly where she was. And with a small shake of her head she turned to walk towards the small cottage covered in shells. She had meant to go there hours ago but she was putting it off. Even as the rain poured down from the heavens she walked as slowly as she could. She had to go but she didn’t want to.  
  
  
  
 _When she was eight she fell in love with Harry Potter because he rescued her from the lake when Fleur couldn’t, he had broken her heart when she was eleven and she saw him kissing Ginny. When she was thirteen she fell in love with Luc Fay because he kissed her, he had broken her heart when she was fifteen by dumping her in the middle of the dining hall. When she was fifteen she fell in love with her sister’s husband because he was so in love with Fleur, he didn’t need to break her heart. When she was seventeen she fell in love with Viktor Krum because he told her she was beautiful, he broke her heart when she was eighteen by picking Quidditch over her. When she was nineteen she fell in love with the man of her dreams._  
  
  
  
By the time she eventually reached the front door her hair was plastered to her face, her clothes were sodden and she was crying again. The normally beautiful girl was a complete wreck. Slowly and carefully she reached up to knock faintly on the door, as if she was trying to make sure that the owners wouldn’t hear it.  
  
They did.   
  
An older version of the girl pulled open the door, whose cheerful smile immediately fell into a look of worry. “What happened?” she asked in French.  
  
  
  
 _The last time she arrived on Fleur’s doorstep covered in tears had been the day after her nineteenth birthday, two days after Viktor broke her heart. She hadn’t had a plan, she had just known that she had to leave France and escape from her old life – England had just seemed like the perfect choice, if only because of Fleur. It had taken two months; a mountain of tissues; several horrendously large meals that Molly had insisted on cooking for her (that she never finished); Fleur’s comforting words; and Hermione hexing Viktor so badly that he couldn’t ride a broomstick for a month to make her feel better. Sometimes she loved the fact Fleur had married Bill because however odd and English the Weasleys were, they really did care. It was then that she had realized that she could make England into her new home and not just somewhere to escape to._  
  
 _It hadn’t been hard to get a job, normally a barely nineteen year old girl with next to no qualifications and no experience would be sent packing but Gabrielle was pretty and French. Perhaps it was sexist or antifeminist to admit that and use that but she couldn’t help her looks so she might as well use them. But the truth was that she so desperately wanted to work even if it was just as piece of pretty furniture at someone else’s desk._  
  
 _She started working for Theodore Nott on Monday morning. By lunchtime on Thursday she knew that she was in love with him._    
  
 _There was nothing wrong with being in love with him, he was rich and handsome and clever and everything about him was perfect. Perhaps he was a little reserved but that just added to the mystery of the whole thing. Gabrielle had always thought her dream man would be someone tall, dark, handsome and mysterious._  
  
 _There was only one problem with him. He was already married._  
  
  
  
Gabrielle still hadn’t spoken. She knew that she had to tell her sister but her courage seemed to have run out, it had only gotten her to the front door before abandoning her at the crucial moment. Fleur knew something was up but she didn’t ask again, instead she just forced her baby sister into dry clothes and thrust a hot cup of coffee into her hands. Whatever else Fleur was, she was an excellent big sister.  
  
  
  
 _Gabrielle soon discovered that there was a freedom in living by herself, perhaps her flat was tiny and cramped but it was hers. Every morning she would disparate to work, spend all day sneaking glimpses at Theodore between drafting various letters for him to sign and then go out in the evenings with the other girls who worked at the office. It wasn’t exciting for most people but then it was all brand new to her – oh and most people didn’t get to spend the majority of their day staring at the most perfect man who had ever lived._  
  
 _She had only been working there for a month when he asked her to attend a ball with him; his wife was in the early stages of pregnancy and was in no mood to attend. Gabrielle didn’t care about his wife; she just cared about spending a whole evening with her Theodore._  
  
 _She spend hours getting ready, grooming herself to perfection so that it would be clear that she was a hundred times more beautiful than his wife. He didn’t comment when he arrived to pick her up but Gabrielle could see from his eyes that he liked it (she knew how men were); she knew from the expressions on his friends’ faces that they liked it too and surely that was all a man wanted from a woman, the ability to make their friends jealous. She couldn’t remember who she danced with that night but she remembered the way in which Theodore hungrily kissed her as he wished her goodnight at her flat door._  
  
 _They soon fell into a pattern of politeness at work, her accompanying him to events while his wife sat pregnant and bloated at home, and then passionate kissing as they said goodbye. They never went further than that though, she wanted to wait._  
  
 _Gabrielle knew then that he was the man of her dreams._  
  
   
  
  
Victorie and Dominique were the only people breaking the silence as they ran around and around in circles trying to tell their aunt all the exciting things they had done since they had last seen her. Gabrielle tried to be interested but her mind kept on slipping away, she couldn’t rise herself up to smile and encourage them in their stories. The only thing that even threatened to raise a smile was Victorie’s serious proclamation that Teddy was her boyfriend and he was going to marry her but even that innocence couldn’t rescue her from her depression.  
  
  
  
 _“Where is my husband?”_  
  
 _Gabrielle hadn’t heard the woman approaching; she had been too busy rephrasing a letter to Mr Malfoy to notice the elephantine steps of the woman in front of her desk. A woman who had been intrigued  by for a very long time. She couldn’t help but be a little smug to notice that she wasn’t nearly as pretty as herself and her giant stomach was rather grotesque. “He’s in a meeting,” she couldn’t help be a little smug at that, “can I get you a drink Daphne?”_  
  
 _She couldn’t help but make a face when she asked for tea, Gabrielle had never quite understood the English obsession with tea when they could so easily have a coffee instead, but she did it anyway. In theory she should have really gone back to redrafting the letter but instead she spied on her tall snobbish brunette opposition. She couldn’t help but wonder what her prefect man was doing married to someone like her._  
  
 _She saw Daphne smile when Theodore came to the door, an honest happy smile that made her look almost pretty. She didn’t see an almost identical smile on her love’s face. She was sure that the hug and the kiss were just for show, Daphne staking her claim and him enduring it. She knew that it was her and Theodore that were the one true pairing, a pairing that had no need for Daphne Greengrass._  
  
  
  
Gabrielle suddenly lifted Victorie up onto her lap and began to carefully plait her silvery hair, letting her stories wash over her. She hoped her niece would always be as happy as this, that her true love would work out.  
  
  
  
 _The next night Gabrielle finally let Theodore into her bedroom, she let him remove her clothes and she gave him her virginity. She loved him too much to refuse him any longer, she loved him too much not to show him exactly how deep her love was. She told him how much she loved him and he told her the same. Finally they were as one._  
  
 _The day Daphne went into labour Gabrielle was asked to keep him company as he waited for the news. She was a hundred percent certain that he loved her a hundred times more than he could ever love his stupid pureblood stuck up wife. The two of them even made love while she laboured – there was no one there to judge them for it. He promised her that he was going to divorce Daphne and marry her instead; he just had to secure his son first._  
  
 _Gabrielle held the baby in her arms before Daphne did and she was proud of it. She didn’t even care that she was ill and unable to look after her own baby, it just meant that she got baby Theo to recognize her as mum first. The few times Gabrielle entered the chamber Daphne screamed at her with all her might, she knew what her husband was up to._  
  
 _And then everything changed._  
  
  
  
“I’ve got something to tell you.” Gabrielle wasn’t sure where the words came from but somehow she managed to get them out. She wasn’t sure why she was speaking English either.  
  
Fleur smiled a small look of relief on her face for the first time in hours. “When you’re ready, ma cherie.”  
  
  
  
 _Gabrielle had noticed the hours Theodore was spending with Daphne but she was so certain that he was in love with her she didn’t care, he didn’t love his wife. The man of her dreams couldn’t return to his hideous wife, he couldn’t. Gabrielle loved him too much for that._  
  
 _So when she awoke one morning without him by her side she assumed he had woken early and he was waiting for her downstairs. Well he was waiting for her but not in the same way, his face was like stone._  
  
 _“Leave.” He commanded, “I’ve had enough of your enchantments and lies, I never want to see you again.”_  
  
 _Gabrielle froze. Only the night before he had told her how much he loved her as he kissed every inch of her skin. She didn’t understand, she couldn’t speak._  
  
 _“I love my wife and you blinded me to that when she needed me most,” there was venom in his voice as he spat out the words placed there for him, “your veela magic imprisoned me and now I’m ready to be free.”_  
  
 _“Je t'adore.” The words caught in her throat as she gazed at the man she adored, “je suis enceinte.”_  
  
 _“I don’t care.” Theodore’s voice was cold as he grabbed her arm and violently pulled her towards the door. “I never want to see you again.”_  
  
 _Somehow Daphne had won, somehow she got to keep the most perfect man alive. And Gabrielle had lost again, she had lost the love of her life._  
  
 _As the door slammed behind her she began to cry._  
  
  
  
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered, “and I love him.”

**Author's Note:**

> translations:
> 
> ma cherie means my dear
> 
> Je t'adore. Je suis enceinte. means I love you. I'm pregnant.


End file.
